Weekly Dose of Health News December 2 – 6, 2013 In this week’s summary you’ll find an update on New York’s Medicaid expansion, Q&A from Kaiser Health news on the new federal mental health parity rules and the Affordable Health Care Act and a link to the NYS Department of Health’s recent webinar on the status of the MRT Waiver Amendment.
This week’s summary is brief and early in order to get to you before the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday. But you’ll find an interesting op-ed from the NY Times regarding hormone replacement therapy and prescription drug access; a debate happening in Israel regarding genetic testing for breast cancer and a NPR blog entry on pilot programs for Obamacare.
The Department of Health released the November Medicaid Update and it contains information on Medicaid prior authorization dose optimization, as well as a safety message on the Center for Disease Control’s campaign on use of single dose vs. multiple dose medication vials. Read the Update here: http://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/program/update/2013/nov13_mu.pdf
11/22/13 – In this week’s summary, you’ll find info on Gov. Cuomo’s decision to stay the course with the health exchange, why NY’s struggling hospitals are working hard to enroll consumers in Medicaid, controversy over a new cholesterol risk calculator, and more!
11/15/13 – In this week’s summary, you’ll find new guidelines for cholesterol treatment, Pres. Obama’s answer for individuals losing their insurance plans, positive news for NY’s exchange, and more!
11/8/13 – In this week’s summary, you’ll find new rules and regs on mental health and addiction parity insurance, FDA proposal to ban trans fats, a look at retail health clinics, and more!
11/1/13 – In this week’s summary, you’ll find info on continued problems for the NY and federal health exchanges, the huge jump in Medicaid enrollees under ACA, raising the age for cigarette sales in NYC, and more!
10/25/13 – In this week’s summary, you’ll find new federal regulations to address abuse of prescription pain meds, unintended consequences of ACA for those with individual coverage, ACA’s method to address the country’s embarrassing infant mortality rate, and more!
10/23/13 – The New York State Department of Health today announced that more than 37,000 New Yorkers have fully enrolled in a health insurance plan since NY’s Health Exchange, the New York State of Health (NYSOH), launched on October 1.
10/16/13 – A partnership between the pharmaceutical companies and labor unions in New York was announced on Sept. 24 at the UA Local 7 Plumbers & Steamfitters in Latham, NY.